1453 (CofD)
Events * Henry VI of England suffers a mental breakdown. Some Changelings claim that it was the result of becoming ensorcelled. April * April 5: Mehmet II joins his army, camped between the Theodosian walls and the Lycus River, as they prepare to lay siege to Constantinople. * April 22: The turkish fleet manages to circumvent the great chain that blocks the harbour of Constantinople. The byzantine fleet engages them. Mehmet II has all byzantine captives impaled. * April 29: The byzantines publically execute all turkish prisoners in retribution for the previous edict of Mehmet. May * May 21: The siege of Constantinople grinds on. Ottoman casualties mount as Byzantium whittles away the forces that crash against her walls. Sapper tunnels are set aflame almost as they are dug. Two Janissaries die for each fallen soldier they attempt to reclaim. Halil Pasha urges Mehmet II to retreat, Zagan Pasha (his second vizier) pushes for an immediate heavy attack. Mehmet splits the difference, and offers to lift the siege; his terms are unconditional surrender. If Constantinople is surrendered to him, the Byzantine people will be allowed to live, and the Emperor will be recognized as a governor to the Ottoman Empire’s Peloponnesian province. But while Constantine in turn offers broad concessions, he refuses to surrender the city. He tells the sultan that "...we have all decided to die with our own free will and we shall not consider our lives." * May 22: A partial lunar eclipse sends the defenders of Constantinople into a panic, for it had been prophecied that the city would only fall during a waxing moon. * May 26: Dense fog descends around Constantinople, casting strange shadows in the streets. As it finally lifts, lights dance along the dome of the Hagia Sophia, dissipating into the night. * May 28: The two armies before Constantinople hold a day of prayer. While the sultan hopes to intimidate the byzantines with the sight of his army, the people of Constantinople instead pray for deliverance, with priests offering final rites to the crowds surrounding the Hagia Sophia. * May 29: Shortly after midnight, the final assault begins; it lasts through the night, passing into the day. And after weeks of bombardment, the walls near Blachernae finally crack open, and Ottoman soldiers pour through what will thereafter be called the Topkapi (“cannon”) Gate. Turkish flags are raised above the break, and the walls begin to falter as soldiers flee into the city to protect their families. The street fighting that follows is brutal, horrific, and continues intermittently throughout the sacking of the city. Tens of thousands of people die, mostly non-combatants. The corpse of the last emperor is not discovered, with rumors aboundant among the greeks that he was spirited away by angels and will one day return to free Byzantium again. After a thousand years, Byzantium and the last remnant of the Roman Empire has fallen. June * June 1: Sultan Mehmet enters Constantinople, renaming it Konstantiniyye and beginning reconstruction to transform the plundered city into his new capital. References Category:Chronicles of Darkness timeline